China News Service, Beijing, October 19 (Reporter Yuan Xiuyue) Recently, the Office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Effectively Implementing the Work of Professional Degree Graduate Students Applying for Degrees Based on Practical Results" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). The person in charge of the Office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council (Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education) pointed out in response to reporters’ questions that this reform is still in the trial and exploratory stage and should not be rolled out across the board in a “one size fits all” manner. The trial implementation of various professional degree categories must be promoted in batches. The first batch is planned to be piloted in five professional degree categories: translation, agriculture, clinical medicine, accounting, and art.
The person in charge of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council introduced that the issuance of the "Opinions" is an important measure to deepen the classified development of academic degree and professional degree postgraduate education and implement the reform requirements of education evaluation in the new era. It aims to proactively respond to the actual needs and reform concerns of the front line, refine the legal provisions into work requirements that can be implemented, and provide policy compliance for schools in various places to scientifically and standardizedly carry out the work of applying for degrees based on practical results, and effectively ensure the quality of degree awarding.
The "Opinions" emphasize the need to put quality first, improve the standards, mechanisms and processes for applying for degrees based on practical results, and strengthen the examination of graduate students' ability to solve practical problems. The Academic Degrees Office of the State Council organized various professional degree postgraduate education steering committees to develop the "Basic Requirements" for corresponding doctoral and master's professional degree categories based on the talent training rules of this professional degree category, clarifying the source and form, content structure, writing standards and evaluation reference elements of different types (forms) of practical results. The "Basic Requirements" are an important reference for degree-granting units to formulate implementation rules, and all educational steering committees must do a good job in releasing and iteratively updating them.
The "Opinions" require that degree-granting units should classify and improve the implementation details for applying for degrees based on practical results for each professional degree category in accordance with the relevant requirements issued by each teaching committee and in combination with the actual situation of the unit, refine and formulate full-process work guidelines covering key aspects such as topic selection and demonstration of practical results, process guidance, evaluation and assessment, and form reference templates such as practical results feasibility demonstration reports, achievement appraisals, and expert review forms, and make them public to teachers and students in a timely manner and file and update them with the relevant teaching committees.
The "Opinions" pointed out that the standards for determining the contribution of practical achievements should be strictly enforced, and it is clear that the practical achievements must be completed independently by graduate students under the guidance of their instructors or as the main completer to assume the core content. Simultaneously improve management systems such as the Charter of the Degree Assessment Committee and the Implementation Rules for the Awarding of Doctoral and Master's Degrees, update supporting documents such as training plans, selection of tutors inside and outside the school, original achievements and intellectual property management, and build a comprehensive and whole-process quality assurance system.
The person in charge of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council said that in the next step, the professional degree teaching committees will be guided to develop the "Basic Requirements" for master's and doctoral degrees in this category, clarify the specific requirements for the practical results of different professional degree categories, and release them in batches depending on the maturity of the document development, the foundation of industry-education collaboration and other conditions. The first batch is planned to be piloted in five professional degree categories: translation, agriculture, clinical medicine, accounting, and art. (over)
